Who Filed the Stone-Wall Proposal? The “Cultural Heritage Administration Chief”... Yoo Hongjun Faces “Self-Registration” Allegations

“Old Walls of Bangyo Village,” designated during his tenure, included the walls of a house registered in his wife’s name
Korea Heritage Service: “There was no preferential treatment”

After stepping down amid controversy over “self-submission,” former National Museum of Korea Director Yoo Hongjun is now facing allegations of “self-registration.” On Nov. 13, the Korea Heritage Service and the government gazette confirmed that the walls of Hyuhyudang, a house registered in his wife’s name, were included in the “Old Walls of Bangyo Village in Buyeo,” which became a National Registered Cultural Heritage in 2006, when Yoo was head of the Cultural Heritage Administration.

Yoo Hongjun, director of the National Museum of Korea, waits with his eyes closed for the start of a parliamentary audit of the museum and other institutions at the National Assembly on October 19, 2026. Photo by Yoon Dongju

The stone walls in question stretch for about 2.5 km through Bangyo Village. They were one of 18 sites identified in a 2006 Cultural Heritage Administration survey of stone-wall lanes in villages across the country, and the only one in Chungcheong Province.

Hyuhyudang is a house Yoo once introduced himself. In the sixth volume of My Cultural Heritage Exploration, published in 2011, he wrote that he had built a country house in the Bangyo-ri area, giving it the name “Hyuhyudang,” meaning “a house for resting and resting.” He also referred to himself as a “resident of Bangyo-ri” and a “young member of the Bangyo-ri village association.”

The village’s stone walls were designated a National Registered Cultural Heritage in December 2006, prompting some to question whether Yoo had “self-registered” the wall around his home. The minutes of a Cultural Heritage Committee meeting at the time identify the applicant who submitted a proposal to consider designating six stone-wall lanes, including those in Bangyo Village, as “the head of the Cultural Heritage Administration.”

Yoo served as head of the Cultural Heritage Administration from September 2004 to February 2008. The Chosun Ilbo reported that day that documents related to the registration process, obtained by the office of Rep. Cho Eunhee of the People Power Party, also list the applicant as Yoo, then head of the Cultural Heritage Administration.

Old Walls of Bangyo Village in Buyeo, a National Registered Cultural Heritage / National Heritage Administration. Yonhap News Agency

After the Bangyo Village stone walls came under scrutiny, government funds were also provided for their upkeep. About 500 million won was spent in Bangyo Village, including the area around Hyuhyudang.

The Korea Heritage Service rejected the allegations about how the site was registered. An official said, “In the early days after the introduction of the registered cultural heritage system, there were cases in which the Cultural Heritage Administration conducted its own investigations and registered sites on its own authority,” adding, “This was neither ‘self-registration’ nor preferential treatment.”

This is the second “self”-related controversy involving Yoo. In July, the ink work “Ilbansigug-eun,” displayed as the calligraphy of independence activist Park Wongun at the National Museum of Korea’s special exhibition Our Table, was found to be the work of pro-Japanese collaborator Park Jungyang. It later emerged that the piece was part of Yoo’s collection and that he had bought it at an online auction in 2019, triggering a wave of criticism over “self-curated exhibition and submission.” Yoo offered to resign 15 months after taking office, and President Lee Jae-myung approved his resignation on Oct. 21.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.